History GuideDangIt / SimulationGames

* The ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' franchise, and especially the second and better known game, has its share of hard moments. Generally speaking, it's not always intuitive which stats will lead to which career choices and endings (i.e., having too much Charisma/Glamour will lock the Daughter out of the ''best'' ending of the second game, Queen Regnant), and some future romantic interests can only be met on very, very obscure sidequests (i.e, [[spoiler: Lucifon the King of Hell]] from the second game ''can'' become a prospect lover for the girl... but ''only'' if she [[spoiler: has high enough stats, Sin that doubles her Morals, '''and''' has at least once taken up his offer to drink with him.]]).

* ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'': Defied, the game has multiple guide links in the pause menu, telling you everything you need to know on how to do just about anything.
** You know those shiny red stones you've been getting from the Atlas Stations? The ones you've probably been selling every chance you get? Yeah. Turns out you need 10 of them if you plan to follow the Path of the Atlas all the way to its end. You can buy more, of course. They're only a few million units ''each'', and that's assuming you can find any merchants who sell them.

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon:'' Getting the secret animals. A great example is the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRQcn27kH6k unicorn.]] Getting one your own without hearing about it through a external source not only require you to know about a obscure film called ''Film/{{Xanadu}},'' but renaming a exhibit after this film, without any sort of in game hint that this animal even exists in the game. At least the mermaid in the marine expansion pack you are more likely to stumble upon accidentally, because putting the mermaid statue in a tank is something a person might do to decorate the tank; it looks good in there despite being for outside.

* Finding out how to attract some of the species in the ''VivaPinata'' games is an extreme hassle. They often involve things such as having an arbitrary number of a certain, easily-devoured pinata in your garden, having a certain number of plants, or keeping a few random items around. Although once you attract them, the in-game encyclopedia will tell you what their other requirements are, some of them ''evolve'' after that... and good luck finding those requirements on your own!

* The ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'' series is riddled with this sort of thing. While it generally only smacks those going for secrets or [[OneHundredPercentCompletion 100% completion]], there are several instances where normal players are frustrated.

* The ''PrincessMaker'' games, and their Western sister series, ''VideoGame/CuteKnight'', generally have a number of normal endings that are fairly easy to get by playing the game normally, a handful of straightforward special endings ... then a few special endings that you're unlikely to figure out ''exist'' without looking them up in a guide, let alone figure out how to ''get'' them.

** Also the Hub plot. Nobody in-universe tells you that you'll need to you'll need to prepare your trade empire ahead of time in order to finish this [[FetchQuest Fetch Plot]] in a reasonable amount of time.

** ''New Leaf'' also introduced the mechanic of Redd's art. Unlike the other games, ''New Leaf'' gives you a chance to pick which of his four art pieces is the real one, as the the counterfeit pieces will all be subtly different from its real counterpart. However, these differences are minor, and often hard to spot. So for some of them, unless you really know your fine art, you'll probably either be using a guide or guessing. Google won't help - every painting in the game is based on a real piece, but they all have generic names like "scary painting" or "lovely painting", so you'll have to recognize them on sight.

** An {{egregious}} one is unlocking the first Hot Springs in HM DS. You need to view Flora's Blue Heart scene to get it. If you haven't seen it before you marry someone else or she marries Carter, it's LostForever.

** Then there's littering in HM DS. In the other games of the series, littering (throwing objects away outside of your property, and not into a trash can) causes a dip in friendship levels for the entire cast ([[FridgeLogic How can they tell?]]). In DS, not only does littering on your own property count, but the penalties are ''insanely high''. Littering twice in one day can literally knock your love interest's Heart Level down one entire color.

** The most egregious case is hands down Natsume's internally developed Harvest Moon game, ''The Lost Valley''. Figuring out how to grow a mutated crop involves blindly guessing which combination of factors produce it out of the following variables: 31 elevations, 4 soil types, 4 seasons, 60+ seeds, 30+ types of fertilizer (or no fertilizer at all), number of times watered, plant's distance from water, up to 8 adjacent plants that can be any arrangement of the aforementioned 60+ seeds, and having Rowan's help or not. And that's only the factors the fanbase ''currently knows affect mutations.'' No explanation of how any mechanics work or what items do is given, and what hints exist in the game are usually misleading or [[TheComputerIsALyingBastard flat out lies.]] For example, Pink Spinach's description states it grows in swampy fall soil; it actually grows in ''barren winter soil.'' But you know what the real kicker is? '''There is no guide.'''

** There's also Cursed Tools in ''HM DS'' and ''(More) Friends'': Not only how to get them (Randomly on certain mine floors, and only after you've upgraded your standard tools to their maximum) but how to remove the curses permanently (once you equip a curse tool, you can't unequip it until you have Pastor Carter release the curse). In DS, it's a matter of money. In ''(More) Friends'' there are three different ways to break the curse: leave equipped for 30 days, Bless 10 times, use 255 times without unequipping. The game doesn't tell you this, nor which method corresponds to which of the six tools.

** The most egregious case is hands down Natsume's internally developed Harvest Moon game, ''The Lost Valley''. Figuring out how to grow a mutated crop involves blindly guessing which combination of factors produce it out of the following variables: 31 elevations, 4 soil types, 4 seasons, 60+ seeds, 30+ types of fertilizer (or no fertilizer at all), number of times watered, plant's distance from water, up to 8 adjacent plants that can be any arrangement of the aforementioned 60+ seeds, and having Rowan's help or not. And that's only the factors the fanbase ''currently knows affect mutations.'' No explanation of how any mechanics work or what items do is given, and what hints exist in the game are usually misleading or flat out lies. For example, Pink Spinach's description states it grows in swampy fall soil; it actually grows in ''barren winter soil.'' But you know what the real kicker is? '''There is no guide.'''

** ''Wild World'' removed the calender so in-game your only way to know when holidays are is the bulletin board. Not everyone plays constantly so it's easy to miss events if you don't have a guide.

* VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun is an incredibly complex game simulating political, social and diplomatic turmoils of the 19th and early 20th century. The player has to manage his country's production, taxation, tariffs, army, research, social composition, diplomatic situation, colonisation, industrialisation, all this through a clumsy and unclear interface. There is no tutorial and most releases are devoid of any manual whatsoever. To understand the game, the player has to rely on internet help or spend countless days (not hours) trying to work things out.

* The ''HarvestMoon'' series is riddled with this sort of thing. While it generally only smacks those going for secrets or [[OneHundredPercentCompletion 100% completion]], there are several instances where normal players are frustrated.
** In the series as a whole, triggering certain cut scenes (needed to marry characters or unlock new features) are a matter of being in the right place at the right time - and sometimes under the right conditions and with the right item equipped. (Ex: Elli's Yellow Heart event in ''Friends Of Mineral Town'' can only be triggered on a sunny Wednesday on Mineral Beach between 9 AM and 10:30 AM)

*** A noteworthy example of an event only being triggerable under a certain condition is in ''Harvest Moon DS (Cute)''. The random event where Rock hits on Muffy requires both of them plus Griffin being at the Blue Bar and Rock and Lumina being married. Sounds straightforward--except that an additional requirement is that ''Muffy can't be married'', something that [[http://fogu.com/hm6/chan6/events/a5_ficklene.php the official guide fails to mention]]. So if either you or Griffin have already married Muffy by the time Rock and Lumina get married, this particular event cannot be triggered.

*** Another lighter example is Another Wonderful Life for Rock's third heart event (it has to be triggered by leaving your farm through the passage near Takakura's house, even though the event leads you near the bridge}, and Gustafa's final heart event (you have to enter the Inn and leave between 7:00 PM to Midnight to find Gustafa leaving the bar, even though there is nothing the event has that urges you to go there and you had no indication before that you'll need to head there).

** The most egregious case is hands down Natsume's internally developed Harvest Moon game, The Lost Valley. Figuring out how to grow a mutated crop involves blindly guessing which combination of factors produce it out of the following variables: 31 elevations, 4 soil types, 4 seasons, 60+ seeds, 30+ types of fertilizer (or no fertilizer at all), number of times watered, plant's distance from water, up to 8 adjacent plants that can be any arrangement of the aforementioned 60+ seeds, and having Rowan's help or not. And that's only the factors the fanbase ''currently knows affect mutations.'' No explanation of how any mechanics work or what items do is given, and what hints exist in the game are usually misleading or flat out lies. For example, Pink Spinach's description states it grows in swampy fall soil; it actually grows in ''barren winter soil.'' But you know what the real kicker is? '''There is no guide.'''
* In the ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' series, finding every bug and fish is almost impossible without a guide, since all bugs and fish are catchable at specific dates and times, and you never know if you got all of them for a specific month (since some are very rare, and some fish shadows look a lot like other fish's shadows).

** There are (hidden) friendship levels in the game, that need to be raised to trigger some cutscenes.

** One example of this are the passwords in the ledger (Passwords earned in the 3DS version are used for bonuses in a smartphone version).

** You also can't use any tools to gather items to sell, you can only pick things up that are laying on the ground, or purchase them from other shops and resell them at your own. It is possible to fish, but for this you just need to stand at a dedicated fishing point and press A (the fishing rod seems to come out of HammerSpace).
** Much like in ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'', some of the cutscences triggered by going into some parts of town require a specific weather and time of day combination. If there is a part of day where you are consistently at the store, you can easily miss some.

** Mary Sue of the [[IronicName "Pleasant"]] family also has a rigged card on the very day the player takes control of them. They either result in her getting fired or demoted, getting her sent home, and possibly [[YourCheatingHeart catching her husband having an affair.]] [[DownerBeginning The entire setup ''is'' meant to destroy the family within an hour of playing with them.]]

** An {{egregious}} one is unlocking the first Hot Springs in HM DS. You need to view Flora's Yellow Heart scene to get it. If you haven't seen it before you marry someone else or she marries Carter, it's LostForever.

* In the AnimalCrossing series, finding every bug and fish is almost impossible without a guide, since all bugs and fish are catchable at specific dates and times, and you never know if you got all of them for a specific month (since some are very rare, and some fish shadows look a lot like other fish's shadows).

** Due to programming oversights, the game never actually tells the player that there is a ''time limit'' to winning the game (a generous one, but even so). The dialogue revealing this information is in the game, but unfortunately, there's no way to trigger it during gameplay.

* ''VideoGame/StarControl II'' had one unfortunate quest that fell into this. You are told to find and capture an extremely rare beast that can only be found on one planet ([[http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/List_of_planets out of several thousand]]) in the game. The only clue is that it's found on a world with a yellow sun in the constellation of "the snakelike creature that has swallowed the elephantine beast". Someone with a thorough knowledge of constellations may realize that this refers to Lyncis, but anyone else is on their own (the constellations are not drawn on the map). Although the game is often obtuse with its hints, this is the only one that requires knowledge from outside the game itself to solve. It was ''marginally'' easier in the original release, which included a starmap in the box with the constellations drawn, which the more recent digital copies of the game lack.

** In ''Harvest Moon DS (Cute)'', the random event where Rock hits on Muffy requires both of them plus Griffin being at the Blue Bar and Rock and Lumina being married. Sounds straightforward--except that an additional requirement is that ''Muffy can't be married'', something that [[http://fogu.com/hm6/chan6/events/a5_ficklene.php the official guide fails to mention]]. So if either you or Griffin have already married Muffy by the time Rock and Lumina get married, this particular event cannot be triggered.

** Mary Sue of the [[IronicName "Pleasant"]] family also has a rigged card on the very day the player takes control of them. They either result in her getting fired or demoted, getting her sent home, and possibly [[YourCheatingHeart catching her husband having an affair.]] The entire setup ''is'' meant to destroy the family.

* VideoGame/TheSims regarding career tracks. In VideoGame/TheSims2 introduces chance cards that appear while a Sim is at school or work. You can choose from two options that have a percentage of success or failure, but the seemingly "right" choice can get your Sim fired if it fails. You also have an [[TakeAThirdOption Ignore option]], but what fun would that be?
** Mary Sue of the [[IronicName "Pleasant"]] family also has a rigged card on the very day the player takes control of them. They either result in her getting fired or demoted, getting her sent home, and possibly [[YourCheatingHeart catching her husband having an affair.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarControl II'' had one unfortunate quest that fell into this. You are told to find and capture an extremely rare beast that can only be found on one planet ([[http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/List_of_planets out of several thousand]]) in the game. The only clue is that it's found on a world with a yellow sun in the constellation of "the snakelike creature that has swallowed the elephantine beast". Someone with a thorough knowledge of constellations may realize that this refers to Lyncis, but anyone else is on their own (the constellations are not drawn on the map). Although the game is often obtuse with its hints, this is the only one that requires knowledge from outside the game itself to solve. It was ''marginally'' easier in the original release, which included a starmap in the box with the constellations drawn, which the more recent digital copies of the game lack.

** ''New Leaf'' also introduced the mechanic of Redd's art. Unlike the other games, ''New Leaf'' gives you a chance to pick which of his four art pieces is the real one, as the the counterfeit pieces will all be subtly different from its real counterpart. However, these differences are minor, and often hard to spot. So for some of them, unless you really know your fine art, you'll probably either be using a guide or guessing.